Best Way to Play Video Poker Games Revealed
Players are certainly going to have lots of choice when it comes to playing video poker games, for video poker is a long established game, and over the decade’s companies that design such games have launched lots of different variants.
The most common video poker game is the age old classic game of Jacks or Better, that game is found in all online and mobile casinos and players will often find video poker machines in land based casinos that have that game on offer, along often with many other variants too.
The way in which video poker is played is very simple to understand, the first task when playing such a machine is for a player to determine just what coin values they wish to play for, and once chosen the next decision is just how many coins per hand to play.
It should be pointed out that most variants are going to offer an enhanced jackpot payout when those variants are played for the maximum number of coins, and that is usually 5 coins when playing a single hand variant.
Some games are classed a multi-hand variants and as such players could choose to play 10, 25, 50 or even 100 hands per game, but obviously those games will require 10, 25, 50 or 100 coins at least to be wagered when playing one coin per hand or 50, 125, 250 or 500 coins when being played for the maximum 5 coins per hand per game.
Basics of Playing Video Poker
As soon as a player has chosen the coin values and the number of coins they wish to play, they then need to click on the deal button, and when playing the single hand variants for example, five initial playing cards will then be dealt out to them face up.
The next decision a player is required to make is whether to hold any of those cards for the next stage of the game and they do so by simply clicking or tapping on the cards they wish to hold.
What a player is aiming to do is to end up with any of the winning hand combinations as listed on the pay table of the game they are playing, so that is what they will ultimately base their decision of just which, if any, of the initial five playing cards to hold.
By clicking on the deal button a second time the cards that haven’t been held are removed and cards are dealt out from the single deck to replace them on the screen.
It is at that final stage of the game that a player will then be awarded with any winning payouts based on whether they have indeed formed a winning hand combination as listed on the pay table of the game they are playing.
The best way to play any video poker variant however to ensure that you always have held the best cards possible after the initial deal is to activate and turn on the auto hold option setting, as by doing so after the first five playing cards are dealt out the machine will automatically then hold the best cards as based on the optimal playing strategy for the variant being played.
Often it is only video poker games that are available to online and mobile players that have an auto hold option setting available, as often land based casino operators will deactivate that option setting.
RTP’s of Online Video Poker Game Variants
Each variant of video poker that players will come across in any playing environment, will each have they own long term expected payout percentage.
It is the pay table that will ultimately determine just what that RTP is. However, to make life easier for players below are the RTP’s of several different variants that have been designed by a range of different company’s supplier online and mobile casino sites with their range of games.
Microgaming Video Poker Game RTP’s
Players will certainly find a very good mix of different video poker game variants on offer to them when they choose to play at any casino site using the Microgaming range of games, and they offer single hand and multi-hand and also progressive variants to players.
As for just how high or low the RTP’s are on their video poker games, well that information is listed below, and as you can see there are some quite different payout percentages on offer, with the Aces and Faces variant being on that players should be playing due to the above average RTP.
- Jacks or Better 99.54%
- Joker Poker 98.60%
- Deuces Wild 96.76%
- Tens or Better 99.14%
- All American 99.38%
- Double Bonus 99.11%
- Bonus Poker 99.17%
- Aces & Faces 99.26%
- Double Joker 98.10%
- Deuces & Joker 99.07%
- Double Double 98.98%
- All Aces 99.92%
The Deuces Wild variant listed up above is the single hand variant, players need to be aware that Microgaming does offer multi-hand variants of that game which come with a slightly higher RTP due to a better paying pay table being attached to them and that RTP is for reference 99.37%.
Playtech Video Poker Game RTP’s
Playtech are a casino game designer that has been around for a great number of years now and they have launched plenty of video poker games over the years.
Below are the long term expected RTP’s of their most popular variants, all of which are available at multi-denomination games meaning players can of course play their video poker game variants for a range of different coin and stake value settings as per their available bankrolls.
- Jacks or Better 99.54%
- Joker Poker 98.60%
- Deuces Wild 98.91%
- 10’s or Better 97.96%
- Aces and Faces 99.26%
Be aware though that there above long term expected RTP’s of Playtech’s range of video poker games are based on the single hand variants of those games, the Jacks or Better and the Aces and Faces 10 or more hand variants from that casino game designer have slightly lower payouts which for reference are 97.30% and 95.44% respectively.